Contents

Themes

Throughout the series, courses come in many forms depending on its theme.

Circuit

These courses are the most basic form of racetracks. As the theme implies, these courses resemble typical go-kart circuits with little to no gimmicks and obstacles. They are usually found on Mushroom Cup and Flower Cup. In the early games, circuits usually share the same theme music.

Off-Road

These are the most common form of racetracks, a recurring theme throughout the Mario Kart courses. Off-road courses vary depending on the game, ranging from simple, circuit-like tracks to complicated, challenging courses with lots of gimmicks and obstacles. Most courses are in off-road form and are usually found in across all cups.

Snow

These courses are basically off-road tracks taking place in a snowy weather. The tracks' surfaces are usually slippery and can make karts spin out or slow down if one is driving carelessly. It is notably also more difficult to drift in these tracks.

Jungle

Appearing in several of the games, these tracks are typically set deep in a forest and are most often themed after Donkey Kong.

Fire

These tracks are mainly associated with Bowser, usually set around lava pits.

Water

Water-themed courses have appeared since the first game of the series. As its name implies, they take place on a shore, near a coast, or inside water-themed places. The water usually serves as a hazard where racers could fall into. However, in Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, racers can drive underwater in some courses up to a point.

City

These courses are usually set right in the middle of a city, using cars, trucks, and other vehicles as hazards to players. Examples include, but are not limited to, Mushroom City and Toad's Turnpike.

Miscellaneous

There are other tracks whose themes include non-Mario courses, borrowing themes from other series, including the Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, and F-Zero series.

Nitro Cups

Every game except Mario Kart: Super Circuit has four cups with new tracks. Its fifth cup, the Lightning Cup, is actually the third cup in that game. In Mario Kart DS, these are known as Nitro Cups.

Mushroom Cup

Mushroom Cup is the easiest Grand Prix cup, with the easiest tracks to complete. It is the first cup in every game. The courses of this cup consist only of a simple layout without a lot of gimmicks.

Flower Cup

The Flower Cup is the second cup in every Mario Kart game. The courses are a little more difficult than those of the Mushroom Cup and feature more gimmicks and challenges. All games feature a Mario Circuit in this cup except for Mario Kart DS, which had its Mario Circuit in the Star Cup instead.

Lightning Cup

The Lightning Cup was only used as an original cup in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, in addition to the standard four. It is the third cup out of the five in the game. Since the release of Mario Kart DS onwards, all games reuse the Lightning Cup as the final cup of the Retro Grand Prix instead.

Star Cup

The Star Cup is the second to the last cup in all Mario Kart games. It contains more gimmicks, obstacles, and challenges than the previous two. Most games feature an ice or snow-themed course in this cup. In Mario Kart 7, this is the only cup to have all four of its courses to have a PAL name.

Special Cup

The Special Cup, before the introduction of retro cups, was the final cup in all Mario Kart games, featuring, unique, long, and challenging courses with lots of gimmicks. In all but the first two games, the second to last course is Bowser's Castle. In all games, the final track is the Rainbow Road, the track to end all races.

Mario Kart 64 is the only game in the series in which the Special Cup is unlocked at the start of the game.

Original Battle Stages

The original battle stages are arenas filled with certain obstacles, such as off-road sections, walls, and hazards like crabs. These can lead to being hit by items. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is the only game to have unlockable battle courses. Mario Kart 8 is the only Mario Kart to have tracks as battle courses.

Retro Cups

Games from Mario Kart DS onwards feature four retro cups and at least one retro battle course in battle mode. Retro courses and arenas are recreations of those found in older games. Colored squares indicate the original game in which the course first appeared for each course and arena in this section. One must note that the Lightning Cup was first and only used as an original cup for Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

The structure for the tracks used in each retro cup, based on the originating game, is the following:

Mario Kart 8: Every cup features an Mario Kart 64 course. All cups have a course from Mario Kart 7 except the Shell Cup, which instead has the only course from Mario Kart: Super Circuit in the game, excluding downloadable content. All cups have a Mario Kart DS course except the Banana Cup, which instead has the only course from Super Mario Kart in the game. The Shell and Lightning Cups each have a Mario Kart Wii course and the Banana and Leaf Cups each have a Mario Kart: Double Dash!! course. The course order once again is random, however all the cups have their Mario Kart 64 course last except the Banana Cup which has it third instead. Retro battle courses are not actually courses initially used for battle; however, retro Grand-Prix courses in the game have been slightly adjusted are the ones used for Balloon Battle. The course from Super Mario Kart, both the courses from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, one of the two courses from Mario Kart Wii, and two of the four courses from Mario Kart 64 appear as playable battle courses in this game.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: A large part of its retro format has been reused again from Mario Kart 8. However, a notable change includes the complete scrapping of the retro Grand-Prix courses slightly tweaked as battle courses, favoring instead the usage of genuine retro courses originally used as battle courses.

DLC Cups

In Mario Kart 8, the DLC cups are 16 more tracks combined into two packs that are available for purchase. Over half of the DLC courses borrow themes from other game series, such as the Legend of Zelda, F-Zero, and Animal Crossing series. It also brings back some retro courses, making them the first cups in the entire Mario Kart series to combine both retro and nitro courses into one.

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the DLC Cups are no longer presented as DLC content but are instead merged into the core game.

Extra Cups

Extra Cups are ports of Super Mario Kart tracks that appeared in Mario Kart: Super Circuit. They are unlocked by having the gold trophy of the Special Cup of an engine class, playing any cup again, and getting 100 coins in the respective cup. For example, upon completing the Special Cup, if a player goes back and plays the Mushroom Cup and collects more than 100 coins, they will unlock the Extra Mushroom Cup.

Each extra track has not been scaled up from Super Mario Kart, remaining the same relative size; this results in the old system of five laps instead of three. Additionally, most hazards have been removed from the tracks, most likely because of game size limitations.

The extra tracks all have the Super Circuit backgrounds (such as the Sunset Wilds background in Choco Island tracks and the Shy Guy Beach background in Koopa Beach tracks).